


Man Down

by Sanru



Series: In Sickness and In Health [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: BAMF!Gladio, BAMF!Noctis, BAMF!Prompto, Blackmail, Detective Work, Emotional Manipulation, Epic Bromance, Epic Friendship, Espionage, Extortion, Friends fighting, Gen, Hacking, Hurt/Comfort, Impersonation, Kidnapping, Mystery, Sickfic, Spy work, Violence, protective friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2018-11-21 13:29:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11358477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanru/pseuds/Sanru
Summary: It all started with Ignis catching a supposed cold.  Then things happened where everything went south almost too quickly to react to.  Now he's been kidnapped and somehow ended up imprisoned by Ardyn who knew where.Not that it really mattered who had him or where he was.  It was an all for one, one for all kind of deal amongst the four of them.  They'd get him back.And the Astrals damn anyone foolish enough to get in their way.





	1. Unexpected Illness

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I've put this companion fic off long enough. There's an annoying subplot that won't leave me alone but I can't keep holding up the story that everyone keeps asking for just because I can't figure out how to work it in right. If I can weave it in later, great. If not it'll just go on the back burner and simmer there annoying me to no end.
> 
> This is the other side of the story unfolding in 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' which is taken from Ignis' persepective. This story may start out on the light and fluffy side but everything goes downhill fast so brace yourself for one hell of a rollercoaster and expect some turbulance.

This was a golden opportunity.  A day he had never thought would ever come.  A day he was going to mark on the calendar and celebrate for years to come.  It was premium blackmail material, that was not even five feet from him, and he couldn't take the picture.  He couldn't convince his finger to depress the button on top of his camera matter how hard he tried.

He had woke up before Ignis Scientia. 

The same Ignis Scientia who had Galdiolus Amicitia wrapped around him like they were long lost lovers from one of Gladio's cheesy bodice ripper novels.

Seriously!  Golden Blackmail!  Right there!  Iris was going to love this!  He’d personally been referring to them teasingly as Mom and Dad for  _ years _ !  Why couldn't he just snap the photo!?!?

Prompto lowered his camera slightly for the hundredth time and just looked at them.  Gladio had his arms wrapped around Ignis and a leg thrown over both of his.  It was not a position that Ignis would ever let himself be caught dead in, regardless of the other person’s sex.  He’d only just gotten semi used to Prompto hugging him and even then he usually was snappy, grumpy and overall  irritable for a while after the fact.

Something had to be wrong with Ignis if he hadn’t pitched a fit about this last night.  Prompto knew from experience that it wouldn't have been something he or even Noct could sleep through.  Ignis didn't have a problem telling someone to 'bugger off’ quietly, loudly, politely, or with vulgarity depending on what the situation warranted.  He leaned a bit closer, looking over the advisor trying to figure out what was wrong without disturbing him or Gald-

“If you're going to take a picture, you better do it before he wakes up,” Prompto nearly swallowed his tongue as he squeaked and jumped back as well as he could when he was sitting down.  The slight smirk on Gladio's face told him that was what he had been going for even before amused amber eyes opened to look at him.  

“Is he alright?” Prompto asked as he fidgeted with the camera’s settings.  He still really wanted to take the picture but only after he knew what was wrong.

“Think he's coming down with something,” Gladio let loose a jaw popping yawned before continuing.  “Woke up to him curling up to me shivering like crazy earlier this morning.  He wasn't exactly thrilled when he woke a while later but I managed to get him to go back to sleep.”

Prompto frowned and stopped messing with his camera.  Now that Gladio had mentioned it, he could see the faint trembling in Ignis’ shoulders.  He was still cold.  “Don't we have any blankets or something to help keep him warm?”

“No.  We weren't exactly planning to spend more than a night or two camping.  The tent and stove were brought along because Iggy always plans for the worse.” Gladio gave a sad smile down at he man he was wrapped around.  “It was a good idea but I don't think even he figured how bad this was going to get.”

That was a melancholy thought right there.  None of them had thought any of this would happen.  They were supposed to take Noctis to his wedding in Altissa and return home.  That was it.  Not try and take on the Empire practically on their own after Insomnia was destroyed and the Crystal stolen.  Prompto really didn't feel like taking a picture now.  He covered the lense and made to tuck it back away in the arsenal. 

“Hey Prom, before you put that away, take the picture for me,” Gladio said softly.  Prompto looked back to see that he was looking down at Ignis with a look that he had only seen him give his sister before.  Soft and also a little sad around the edges.

“Sure,” he wanted to ask why but there was enough sadness in that look that kept his mouth shut.  For now.  He doubted that Gladio would talk to him about it anyway.

He took several of them, trying several different filters and angles before putting his camera away.  “You can look at them later,”  He promised as he began digging through his duffle.  He had an idea, “Hey, is your jacket in your bag?”

“Should be,” Prompto pulled out his spare vest and reached for Gladio’s bag, pulling the jackets out a second later.  “You got an idea?”

“We may not have a blanket but we got some heavy clothes we can pile on him.  They'll help keep him warm and means you don't have to lay there all day cuddling him.”. He draped his vest over their legs and then the jacket over their torsos.  Of course they were both so tall the makeshift blankets barely covered half of them.  “Sheesh, why do you two have to be so tall?” He grumbled as he shrugged off the vest he was wearing, intending to drape it over the uncovered parts of their legs.

“Don't bother pretending.  You're just jealous about it shorty,” Ignis let out a small noise then.  Prompto would have called it a whimper had it been anyone other than Ignis making it.  Ignis didn't whimper.  Gladio sighed and gently rubbed circles into Ignis lower back, careful not to disrupt the jacket partially over them.

“Get Noct up and get his jacket,” Gladio said, his voice pitched low as he tried to lull Ignis back to sleep.  The advisor shifted faintly in his grip before resettling.  “We’ve all been pretty lazy today.  We should get ourselves in gear.”

Prompto dug out Noctis’ jacket and draped that over the other two before turning to the lump of black clothes lying in a huddled bundle at the far end of the tent.  It never ceases to amaze him how Noct could sleep anywhere.  He was pressed face first into the seam where the tent floor became the wall.  The only part of him still on the sleeping mat was his feet.  He was mostly sleeping on his side on the rock that made up the the haven.  That couldn't be comfortable.

Prompto started by first dragging Noctis’ dead weight back up onto the sleeping pad and poked his cheek rather adamantly several times which, predictably, didn't do anything.  Typically he would yell in Noct's ear but that would probably wake up Iggy which meant Gladio would probably kill him.  While he'd do anything for his friend, waking up Noct was not worth Gladio strangling him first thing in the morning as far as he was concerned. 

Prompto shook his shoulder and got a grumbled response.  Okay, Noct was unasleep enough for his tried and true tactic to work.  He lightly tickled Noct’s sides just above his hips causing him to frown and squirm slightly.  He stopped for half a breath and then tickled Noct’s stomach right above his belly button with vigor and more than a little malicious glee.

Noctis jackknifed immediately and curl off to one side trying to protect his vulnerable stomach.  Prompto couldn't help the victorious smile that spread across his face as he chased after the Prince, going for his side again now that he was protecting his stomach.  Noctis squirmed, trying to escape but finally he had to open his eyes and bat away the hands tormenting him.  Prompto kept trying to tickle him for the next minute just to make sure he was good and awake before laying off.  He had achieved his goal and now Noct was awake if rather more grumpy than normal.

“Mornin’ buddy,” he said as he ruffled Noct’s hair.  It seemed to take a minute for the Crown Prince to realize someone was even messing with it.  He grumbled and half heartedly swiped a hand at Prompto.  He really wasn't awake yet but at least he was up and moving.

Noctis yawned in response to the greeting, flopping his hand at Prompto as the blond started messing with his hair again.  He glanced off to the side when he noticed Gladio slowly getting up.  It took his sleep addled mind a moment to recognize and realize that yes, Gladio was carefully unwrapping himself from around Ignis who was still asleep and buried under their collection of outerwear.  “What's wrong with Specs?”  Because something had to be wrong for Ignis' to still be asleep and not out making breakfast and pounding cans of Ebony like it was going out of fashion.  

“Gladio thinks he is coming down with something,” Prompto said keeping a close eye on Noctis incase he tried to lie back down again.  He looked alert and more awake now but it was hard to tell if Noct was just bored or about to start snoring.

“No, he’s sick,” Gladio had managed to peel himself away from Ignis without waking the other but was still kneeling next to him.  His hand moved from his cheek to his forehead, “He’s shivering more than he was before.”

Noctis frowned, “With what?”

“Probably just a head cold… but it feels like he has a low grade fever.” Gladio frowned down at the man next to him for a long couple seconds before continuing, “Alright you two.  Outside.  We need to get put together a plan and the more noise we make around him the more likely he’s going to wake up.”

“Wait, Gladio,” Ignis’ neck was at a weird angle and Noctis knew from experience that it would put a crick in it.  He quickly hauled his vest out of his bag.  Ironically the one that Ignis had alway despised and threatened to lose at the laundromat or burn in the campfire more than once so far on their trip.  Noctis was keeping it around now just to see how long it took something bad to happen to it.  “Can you put this under his head?  Without, you know, waking him up?”

Gladio took the vest from him and carefully folded it so it resembled more of a pillow.  Using a gentle touch, he coaxed Ignis’ head up without waking him, slid the makeshift pillow underneath his head and lowered it back down to rest comfortably on the vest.  A faint sigh escaped Ignis as some of the excess tension in his shoulders eased out.

“Come on,” Gladio said, raising up onto his feet and unzipping the tent.  Despite his size he easily moved out of the tent, raising to his full height just outside the door and stretching his arms out in a stretch accompanied by a huge yawn.  Prompto prodded Noctis is the shoulder until he grumbled and crawled out of the tent, leaving Prompto to scramble out after him.  Gladio zipped the tent closed behind him and then herded both of the over to the camp stove so they could talk and without worrying about disturbing Ignis.  

Prompto began digging around in their supplies looking for something to make for breakfast but he didn't know how to use half the ingredients Ignis had on hand.  The other half he could work with but he was going to need time to make pancakes and something about the look on Gladio's face told him that he didn't have time.  

“Alright, It’s safe to say that Ignis isn’t going to be up for doing much of anything but sleeping today,” Gladio reached into the arsenal and pulled out their almost never touched first aid kit.  He dug around in it for a moment before frowning.  “And it doesn't look like we have any kind of cold medicine to help either.”

“Specs forgot something?” Noct said yawning.  He stuck his foot out and spun a camp chair around with it so he could flop heavily into.  “That doesn’t sound like him.  He might be dying guys.”

“You fall asleep and I’m carrying you down and chucking you into the muddiest part of the Slough,” Gladio threatened as he pushed the first aid kit away.  “We’ll have to make a run up to the Post and get some medicine for him.”

“And something a bit more ‘inexperience cook’ friendly,” Prompto held up some kind of tuberous root that he didn’t even remember seeing before.  “What even is this?”

“Ignis isn’t staying here alone,” Noctis said with determination despite the yawn threatening to escape.  “Anything could happen while we're gone.  I’ll stay put and keep an eye on him.”

“Keeping an eye on him means staying awake, Princess,” Gladio pointed out. “You can come with me and Prompto can stay here on watch.”

“I should be able to get him to eat something,” Prompto said as he began hauling out what he needed for pancakes.  He wasn’t exactly sure if they would be easy for a sick person to eat but it was really the only thing he knew how to make with what they had on hand.  “We’re almost out of eggs too.”

“Might be a better idea to rent out the caravan for a few nights until he gets better,” Gladio said glancing back at the tent thoughtfully.  “I could carry him up the hill to the Post.”

“He wouldn’t be caught dead being hauled around by you and he’s already going to pitch a fit about the meds and extra food.  He was saving our money up for something,” Noct said as he stood with seemingly more effort than strictly necessary.  “Come on, big guy.  Let’s get going.  The sooner we’re back the sooner we can eat something.”

“Pancakes should be ready by then,” Prompto promised as he put the pan on the grill and began fiddling with the controls on the portable stove.  He’d never had to use one before but with only two knobs it couldn't be that difficult.  There was a couple clicks and a loud whoosh as the igniter suddenly caught.  Fire shot a good foot up into the air around the pan.

He quickly shut the valve off and gave a small contrite smile to Noctis and Gladio. They simply stared back in return. “Um,” Gladio crossed his arms as Prompto tried to collect his thoughts.  “I promise not to set the camp or the forest on fire while you're gone?” he beamed at the larger man trying to seem sincere and obviously putting a bit too much into it.  He winced at the disbelieving look he got.

Gladio rolled his eyes, “Alright.  Change of plans.  I’ll teach you two how to use the camp stove and then Noct and I'll go on a supply run."

It took Noctis a second to realize he was suddenly being included in the spontaneous training.  “Wait, what?  Why am I being roped into this?”

“Because if you're learning to use the stove you have to be standing and you haven't mastered how to sleep standing up.” Gladio gave him a rather gentle shove towards the stove more for show than to actually get him moving.  “Come on, we don't have all day.  The sooner we know Prompto isn't going to set the forest on fire the sooner we can get medicine for Iggy.”

“I'm going, I'm going,” Noctis grumbled as he walked back across the haven for his lesson.  As he walked past the tent he heard a faint noise, almost but not quite a whimper.  Gladio's lesson had better be really fast.  

Ignis didn't get sick.  Ignis didn't whimper in his sleep. Ignis was the epitome of health and poise and being ready for anything and everything…

But it wasn't like you could plan to be sick.  
  
Noctis was fairly certain if Ignis wasn't back on his feet tomorrow then the world was going to end


	2. A Tyrant's Roar

Overall, it hadn't been as difficult as he had first thought but seriously this was still a pain in the ass.

As far as Prompto was concerned, going into battle without Ignis was like telling a two year old to go to bed without their security blanket.  It never ceased to amaze him how well in hand Ignis always had everything.  Even when something horrendous was happening and Prompto was sure they were all about to die exceedingly painfully, Ignis would push his glasses back up his nose and calmly tell them what to do and they'd just do it and somehow it worked out.  Everytime.  Freaking.  Time.

Prompto was positive it was some kind of  magic thing to do with the Crystal because honestly Ignis’ track record was too perfect for a normal human.  Maybe he was an alien?  Or a robot...

Igbis would be tossing potions out to them left and right.  Sliding between them and whatever they were facing to give them the few moments of cover that they needed to crack the potion casing and recover.  He wielded elemental magic as if it was nothing.  Showing up Noctis time and time again which Prompto knew drove Prince up the wall even if he didn't want to verbally admit to it.  

Not seeing Ignis sharp dressed form flipping and cartwheeling about the battlefield was disconcerting to say the least.  He just had to keep reminding himself that he was back taking a... break next to the rock further up the hill.  He was safe even if he was sick.  All they had to do was finish up this bounty and they could bundle him back off to the campsite for the evening where he could comfortably rest until tomorrow.  Maybe he'd even be better by then.

Now if only he could keep these little runts in his sights!

How Ignis could keep track of who was where and what was happening all over the battlefield was amazing considering it was all Prompto could do sometimes to make sure he kept his footing right so he didn't fall over from his gun’s recoil.  For such a little handgun, it had some serious kick to it.  If his balanced was compromised at all, he’d fall over, slid across the ground and sometimes just get knocked back on his ass.

At least he did it with enough flare and style that it looked intentional.

He fired off two shots, both of them hitting the yellowtooth coming in at Gladio from his blindside.  The creature yipped and stumbled.  Both bullets finding their marks in the thing’s back leg.  It also helped to alert Gladio that he had a third yellowtooth trying to make his life hell.  

Prompto glanced off to the side as the shimmery silver light exploded on the other side of the battlefield from Gladio.  Noctis spear went deep into the yellowtooth’s side and even though it didn’t run the thing through complete Prompto didn’t see that little guy getting back up.  Not with the way it’s spine had buckled outwards like that.  He fired several rounds from his gun to keep the other two circling around at bay as Noctis let his lance vanish back into the arsenal instead of wasting time trying to pull it free.  His short sword flashed into existence.

Movement off to his side caught Prompto’s attention.  One of those mangy mutts was making a break for it, moving in a dead sprint for the tree line behind him.  “Noct!” he yelled even as he shoved away his handgun and pulled the autocross bow from the arsenal.  The machine whirred to life, peppering the creature’s side as it attempted to escape.  Ignis was up in that part of the forest and, though he was trying to hide it, he was not doing very good at all.   

Their normally unflappable resident genius looked like he had been run over by Cindy’s tow truck.  Twice.  A third time if you counted the vehicle having to reverse to run over him again.  His shirt had been wrinkled this morning and that alone had told Prompto everything he needed to know about how he felt.  He had sat in a quiet daze while trying to eat his breakfast.  He seemed to be off in his own little world no matter how many times Prompto tried to ground him in reality and coax him to eat some food.  His eyes were dull even after his nap under the tree and the way he moved and breathed spoke heavily of exhaustion and malaise.  Gladio was right, he really shouldn't be out here with them.

Maybe they should have just rented a caravan for a few days and tied him to a bed or something to make him sleep off his cold.

He was really to far away from the  yellowtooth for the bolts being lobbed from his heavy machine to hurt it much.  Thing was pretty accurate close to mid range but far away not so much.  It was enough to slow it down though which kept in it range for Noctis to warp right into its back.  Prompto turned away, figuring the Prince could handle it long enough to check on Gladio and make sure nothing can up on him from behind.  

Gladio was looking really pale and haggard.  He was sweating profusely and his movements were a little lopsided even if he was still on his feet.  There were only two voertooths circling around him now but they were keeping their distance and watching him wearily.  Snapping at his heels and trying to dart in when they thought they had an advantage and not giving him enough of a break to take an antidote.  “Got your back Gladio!”  He yelled even as he started running forward so he could better cover the bodyguard.  “Use an antidote!”

He wasn't going to try using any of his fancy ammo for this.  He'd needed time to load his gun and most of the specialty shells would accidentally hit Gladio as well.  Better not to risk it and it him.  Gladio would never let him live it down and probably put him through some more 'training’.

More like early morning ass whopping.

Still he was a good shot.  A really good shot as far as he was concerned.  He planted his feet and supported his gun hand with his other hand wrapped around the wrist and closed his one eye to sight down the barrel better.  He hated shooting this way.  He was practically begging to be hit in his flank not moving or paying attention to his surroundings like this but he couldn't complain about his aim.  Bullseye every single time.  

He hit it in the knee, the shell obliterating the joint.  It yipped and fell, scrambling back to three legs immediately but Prompto had already passed it off and shot at the other one.  He hit it in the neck and then again in the side of the head dropping it where it stood.  He went to deal with the other one but it was being knocked aside by a burst of silvery light and sword as Noct came out of a warp next to his Sheild. 

Gladio stood up, looking better as a faint greenish hue seemed to seep into his skin.  Prompto glanced around to make sure the yellowtooths were all down before jogging over to them.  Gladio clapping Noctis on the shoulder in silent thanks as Prompto approached.  “You're getting better at aiming,” he said as Prompto came up to them.  “Now if only we could keep you on your feet for more than five minutes we might actually make a Crownsguard out of you yet.”

Gladio went to ruffle his hair but Prompto successful batted away his hands so he could dance out of the way.  “How else am I supposed to look cool?” He took a second after he had managed to escape relatively unscathed to make sure that his hair hadn't been messed up.  

“Relax, diva.”  Gladio smirked as he stepped over to where Noctis was removing the nearby yellowtooths’ tongues so they could submit it for their reward.  “Your hair is fine,” look back at Noct, he frowned when he realized how he was hacking away at the vermin's mouths to cut the tongues free.  It was nothing like his more elegant slices.  Gladio knew he had taught him better knife skills than that.  

“Hey, easy Noct,” he said as he stopped the next hacking motion the Prince had been about to do.  “It's not like you have to keep fighting them.  They're dead.”

Noctis didn't answer him but went to hack at the creature laying before him again.  Gladio sighed and stopped him, this time easily slipping the sword from his hand.  “Relax,” he said as he took the Prince’s spot and sliced off the tongue in one easy movement.  “It's not a race or anything.  Now what's bothering you?”

Noctis didn't say anything right away.  Just silently watched as Gladio sliced off another tongue.  “He shouldn't be out here,” he finally said looking back up towards the forest where they had left Ignis.  “I shouldn't have brought him with us.”

“No, you shouldn't have,” Gladio said as he stood.  He quickly wrapped an arm around Noct and gave a big thumbs up to the camera Prompto was pointing their way, the tongues happened to be hanging from the hand giving the thumbs up only added to the scene as far as he was concerned.  “But now you know better.  Iggy'll bend over backwards for you, Noct.  You gotta keep that in mind.  Making him come with us isn't doing him any favors.  He should be back at camp resting not running about the countryside because you're worried about him being left alone.”

“But what if something happened?  No one would have been there to help him.”  To say he felt bad was an understatement.  Ignis was an absolute mess earlier when Gladio had forced him to sit down.  Noct knew he was tired but it wasn't until then that he realized how pale and faint Ignis had looked on his feet.  He'd look even worse than he had thought. Ignis hadn't been able to do more than pant as he leaned back against the tree for a good five minutes before Gladio had managed to get him to drink some water.  

“Why do you think I kept pressing to rent out the caravan up at the Post during our little jaunt this morning?” Gladio asked as he walked over to another corpse to take it's tongue.  “In the caravan and surrounded by all those people, there wouldn't be animals to worry about and Wiz could keep an eye out and hide him if the Empire decided to do a surprise inspection or something.  A real bed and a little air conditioning to deal with the humidity would've helped too.  Especially if he's developing a fever.”

Noct looked away from his Shield and back up the hill to where they had left Ignis.  Gladio was right.  That's what they should have done.  He silently promised himself that tomorrow would be different.  He’d order Ignis to stay there for the day if he had too.  He really hated ordering his friends to do anything but in this case he was willing to make an excep-

The roar that suddenly echoed from behind him sent the hair on the back of his neck on end.

“The hell was that?!”  Gladio was on his feet, turned towards the forest.  A sweep of both hands sent the dagger and the tongues into the arsenal in a subconscious gesture.

“Dude… Ignis…” Prompto had turned towards the forest to.  His camera vanishing back into the arsenal as well.  “Don’t tell me that came from where he was?!”

Noctis hadn’t remembered pulling his phone from his pocket or dialing it.  He only realized that he was holding it to his head when he heard the line disconnect before it had even really began to ring.  He blinked in disbelief, pulling it away from his head to look at the screen.  Had he been disconnected?  “Damn it,” he whispered under his breath, hitting the button to speed dial Ignis.  This time it didn’t even get a chance to ring through before disconnecting.

Was Ignis hanging up on him?!

Since when had Ignis ever refused to answer him!?!

Positive now that something horrible had happened to his oldest friend Noctis made to dial again only to be stopped by Gladio.  “Noct,” the Shield said putting the phone to his ear and holding up a placating hand towards the Prince.  “Hold up.  He just texted me.  He wants us to stay out of the fores-”  Gladio stopped mid sentence, frowning off into the middle distance as he pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it.  “He hung up on me?” he said more to himself than the others, disbelief clearly echoing through his tone.

“Tch,” Noctis turned with the intent to run back to where they had left Ignis only to collide with Prompto who had been walking up behind him furiously typing away at his phone.  

“Oaf!” he said as the two of them staggered apart after their little run in.  “Hey!  Easy Noct.”  He hit the send button on his phone and put a hand on the Prince’s shoulder.  Gladio phone beeped from an incoming text behind them.  “Ignis says no phone calls, text only,” he held his phone up showing the Prince the brief string of messages that two had just sent back and forth.  “See?  He’s not dying.  He’s fine.”

“And now I can understand why he doesn’t want us to call him and stay away,” Gladio grumbled as his phone pinging again and he started typing out another text using a bit more force than necessary as he tapped at the touch screen.  “It’s a behemoth tyrant.  Ignis is hiding in a small cave underneath the boulders where we left him.  He’s safe, that thing doesn’t know where he is.”

“Let’s go get him,” Noctis ignored the fearful look that flashed across Prompto’s face as he stepped around his best friend, intent on collecting his advisor from his hiding spot.

“Noct, wait!”  Gladio jogged several steps to catch up to him and put a hand on his shoulder to stop his march.  “It’s better to wait for that thing to leave.”

“But Ignis!” he snapped at his Shield, slapping the hand from his shoulder as he twisted out of the grip.  “We can’t leave him-”

“We’re not leaving him Noct!  Calm down!”  Gladio grabbed his shoulder again, curling the fabric of his shirt into his hand so that he didn’t try warping away from them.  Noctis put a hand on his wrist and glared at him but didn’t try and break the hold.  “A behemoth tyrant would have the four of us for dinner.  Deadeye would be like a kitten compared to that thing.  We won’t stand much of a chance fighting it.”

“Ignis is-!”

Gladio gave Noctis a light shake from the grip he had on him to get him to quiet down for the moment.  “Is safe,” he finished for him, stressing those two words as he said them to get the point across.  “That thing doesn’t know where he is.  We’ll cover him in case it does figure out where he’s hiding but for now we just have to wait.  It’ll leave eventually then we’ll go get Iggy.”  He relaxed his shoulders a bit now that Noctis had calmed down but didn’t release his shirt as a precaution.  He didn't feel like chasing after Noct and stopping him from making a really stupid decision.  “No sense in fighting something that can whoop our collective asses unless we absolutely have to.”

Noctis still looked like he wanted to argue with him but Prompto spoke up.  “We can send him text messages.  You know, making sure he’s okay.  Checking in on him and such.”

Noct finally looked away from Gladio’s eyes, letting them fall to about his chest as he thought about it.  They we right.  They generally only attacked things that had attacked them first or a bounty when it came to wildlife.  No since in fighting something that was just moving about the woods especially if it was half as strong as both Ignis and Gladio were saying.  They were a lot stronger than they had been when they had first left the Crown City, but if his tactician and bodyguard were doubting their abilities against this thing then he should listen to them.  Besides not listening to them had put them in this mess to begin with.  “Right,” he agreed letting go of Gladio’s wrist.  “We’ll fight only if we have to.”

“Good,” Gladio breathed as he let go of his shirt finally.  He was glad that Noct had seen some reason and -even if he didn't admit it out loud- glad he wasn't about to fight that thing.  Protecting Noct was his sworn duty but he wasn't ready to be killed in what would easily be considered a suicide by hunters.  “Let’s get into a better position to keep an eye on things but not attract any unwanted attention.”  He gave them both a look and stepped around Noctis to take the lead.  “Stay behind me both of you.  If I tell you to get down-”

“We’ll throw a dance party the likes of which that thing has ever seen,” Prompto joked weakly in an attempt to brighten everyone's’ mood a bit.  

Gladio at least snorted in amusement. “Yeah you do that.  It'll be a good distraction.  I’ll be hiding as far away from you as possible.”

Noctis was already typing at his phone feeling enormously guilty about the entire day so far.  He should have listened to Gladio and left Ignis at the caravan at the Post.  Instead he had dragged Ignis about the countryside until he had nearly collapsed and now he was trapped in a cave and being stalked by a behemoth.  This was all his fault.

**Specs, are you alright?**

**I’m fine, your highness.**

No thanks to him


	3. Distractions

“Prom, try blinding the MA-X’s sensors with your starshot.  Gladio, get Specs out of here.”

In all honesty, he had been expecting for Ignis to say something or maybe have Gladio disagree with him.  Despite being royalty, those two almost never listened to him when he order them to do something like that.  Usually it was only his personal comfort that they tended to pay much attention to.  Honestly it felt like they only humored him when he called out orders in combat.  Gladio and Ignis were almost always miles ahead of him in combat readiness to begin with.  It probably came with the whole Crownsguard training or something...

The fact that Gladio just turned around and threw Ignis over his shoulders like a sack of Liede potatoes before bolting in the opposite direction was not something he was used to.  He had to pause for a second and gawk at their retreating backs in surprise.  Gladio had honestly listen to him and Ignis hadn't complained or even tried to stop him.

Was Ignis really that bad off?

“Seriously,” he muttered to himself and he probably would have kept staring at Gladio’s back as hurtled a bush in his path if it hadn't been for Prompto.

“How should we do this, Noct?” he asked as he bounced from one foot to the other, hands flitting over his handgun with practiced ease.   He snapped it back, aimed and pulled the trigger.  The mech hadn't even fully come online but it reeled backwards at the sudden bright light that appeared directly in front of its cockpit.

Part of him wanted to brush Prompto like he had in the past when the blond had asked that question but right now it would probably get them both killed.  The whole point of this was to give them an opening to escape not to actually get into a fight with the Magiteks in front of them.  He wasn't as good at the whole tactical maneuvering thing like Ignis was but Ignis was his tutor and one of the best too.

Even if Noctis had cursed him to the stars and back for making him study military history and combat tactics during the summer last year.

“We’re just gotta distract them and then move back out of their sensor range,” he brought up his hand, pulling the Engine Blade from the arsenal and sweeping it back and forth in a quick stretch as it materialized in his hand so that he could get use to its weight as he eyed the charging assassins.  

“I'll warp in close to the assassins and get their attention.  While they're clustered hit them with the gravity well thing you can do and I'll warp away.” It should give them enough Time to run.  Between the gravity shot holding the assassins back and the mech still reeling from the starshell, they wouldn't have to worry about pursuit.

“Wait!  I don’t like the sound of this plan!” It was probably because he was putting himself in danger but it wasn’t like Prompto could stop him.  Not when he had already thrown his sword to warp strike the closet assassin to them.  Still, he felt Prompto try and grab his partially dematerialize shoulder, sweeping down through it as he vanished from there to end up with holding his blade that was now buried in the assassin’s chest.

It reeled backwards with the force of his hit, letting out that weird cybernetic shriek that they always did when they were hit hard.  Noctis didn’t let it distract him, already phasing away from the first assassin to avoid the sweep of another assassin's sword.  He hated how fast assassins were compared to the regular troopers.  He was still trying to get use to phasing through hits.  He was kind of glad that Gladio wasn’t there as the third assassin's sword managed to land a hit that was mostly deflected by the bullet proof vest Ignis had been making him wear daily.  His Shield would most likely have him doing blocking and dodging drills for the next week.  

“Prompto!  Now!” He yelled even as he threw his blade again.  Another trick he was learning on mastering was leaving an afterimage of himself behind.  It really didn’t take much effort, outside of remembering to do it, and it was really just a faint blue outline of himself but it worked like a charm against Magiteks.  The assassins lunged at the image, ignoring the fact that he was already warping in the other direction back towards Prompto.

The heavy machine in his hands let out a few concerning grinding sounds and a loud backfire before launching the gravity well shell.  Prompto let out a whoop as the shell hit and punched up into the air as the small black ball began pulling everything towards it.  Noctis made a mental note to tell Prompto to clean that thing before it exploded in his hands or something.

Noctis ran up to him rolling his eyes at the display.  “Come on!  Let’s go!” he said as he stopped long enough to grab the back of Prompto’s shirt and twist him around to follow in Gladio’s footsteps.  He gave him an encouraging nudge to get moving that really wasn’t needed.  The sounds of missiles being launched from the MA-X’s launchers were enough to get anyone moving.

Neither of them bothered looking back as they ran for all that they were worth after Gladio and Ignis.  Even though by the sounds of it the MA-X had emptied both it’s launchers not a single hit even came close to hitting them.  The mech’s sensors were still warped from the starshell and now that they were out of range it wasn’t like that or the assassins would be coming after them now.  

Still running hard on their adrenaline highs, Noctis and Prompto swerved to get behind a large boulder, all bright eyes and happy grins that their improvised distractions had worked so well, giving each other a high five for their mutual success.  “Yeah!” Prompto said as he bounced about.  “That was such an-” 

And then they saw Ignis and their celebration came to a screeching halt.

It was obvious that the advisor was anything but alright.  He had apparently thrown up and his face was pale with sweat clinging to his temples.  Seeing him leaning so heavily against Gladio was practically heartbreaking.  Prompto had never realized that Ignis could look anything other than poised, prim or proper but here he was looking small, weak and practically helpless as he leaned into the Shield's shoulder.  

Of course this was still Ignis who had a stubborn streak of pride almost two miles long.  Noctis was fairly sure it was with sheer will power that Ignis managed to sit up from Gladio and get to his feet but there was no telling when that would give out.  A case of the flu was not something to joke around with especially since it meant Ignis was only going to get worse in the long run.  Noctis remembered the last time he had had the flu.  He had been bedridden for almost two weeks.  

If Ignis was bedridden for two weeks they were so screwed.

Prompto would be little help when dealing with a stubbornly sick Ignis and he had even less of a change trying to get Ignis to listen to reason.  Luckily, Noctis knew of someone who could out stubborn Ignis even when he was at his best.  A single glance at Gladio who nodded in return was all Noctis needed to know that Ignis would stay safe on their rather long walk back to camp.  Ignis may have had a stubborn streak two miles long but Gladio’s was nearly twice that and as deep as a river.  When it came to shear bull headed stubbornness, Gladio was the undisputed best in that category.

Gladio knew that if he was hovering like this when Ignis was fine that he would most likely have been on the receiving end of one of Ignis’ more vicious glares and probably be told off with words commonly found only in a dictionary.  He'd also probably be given a vegan diet for the next week.  Not that there was anything wrong with that but he liked his meat.  Thankfully, the advisor seemed more focused on putting one foot before the other then what he was doing as they walked along.  Gladio didn't doubted that Ignis knew he was staying so close, barely an arm's width between them so he was ready to grab him around the waist if he stumbled or fell, but he didn't acknowledge it either.

Gladio was rather surprised that Ignis managed to walk to the other side of the slough and up the hill to the haven under his own power.  There was more than once he thought about just sweeping Ignis up off his feet and over his shoulder but he refrained, mostly because an exhausted Ignis was easier to deal with, but also because Gladio didn't want to wound his pride anymore than it already was.  It seemed to be taking everything Ignis had just to keep moving forward.  As much as he hated to see Ignis struggling along, Gladio had to remind himself that he was killing two birds with one stone.

The moment Ignis set foot on the haven, Gladio practically saw the tension ease out of him as his shoulder slumped slightly.  Gladio found himself breathing a sigh of relief too.  There wasn't any reason for him to keep up his guard anymore.  The magic imbued in the haven would protect them from most everything in the surrounding area.  He could relax a bit and work on getting Ignis to lay the hell down.

“Let’s see if I can heat up some soup.”

“Without lighting the pan in fire like you did this morning.”

Somehow, Ignis’ shoulders seemed to droop even more.  “Come on Iggy,” he took half a step closer to him, hand coming up to rest lightly on his lower back so he could steer Ignis towards the tent.  “You need to lay down.”

“Gladio, if I lay down now it will be awhile before I wake again.” Ingis sounded more beat down and ragged than Gladio could ever remember him sounding.  “I need fluids and I should see if I am able to stomach something with some substance to it.”

Really he couldn't argue with that logic either.  Ignis was right, he needed fluids and to hold something down no matter how difficult it was for him. He needed to keep up his strength.  Gladio let Ignis go as he headed determinedly towards the camp chairs.  He doubted that Ignis was going to keel over on him now, not when he was so close to his goal, but Gladio still keep an eye on him until he reached the nearest chair and began to get comfortable in it.  

Only when he was sure that Ignis was settled into the chair for a bit did he turn to fetch him a bottle of water.  Noctis was already putting water in the kettle and Prompt was shifting about the pot on the camp stove to make room for the kettle, the pot and the fry pan.  It looked like his brief lesson this morning on camp stove usage and safety was sticking so far.

“Gladio,” Noctis was talking to him in a low voice but looking at Ignis who was slumping down into his chosen chair.  “We going to rent the caravan tomorrow.  I don't care how but he's not staying out here another night after this.”

“We could always ask Wiz to stay there and pay up later,” Prompto said in an equally low voice as if they were conspiring against Ignis even though he was right there.  “He knows we'll be good for it.”

For all the times they were off checking on and rescuing chocobos for him, he'd better.  Gladio didn't say that no matter how much he wanted to but nodded in agreement to what Noctis was saying.  He took the water over to Ignis, breaking the seal as he went.  He knelt next to the chair Ignis was half curled up in.  Their advisor's eyes were glassy and dull.  Ignis was getting worse with every passing minute.  He pressed his hand to Ignis’ forehead ignoring the slight huff of annoyance he got in return and frowning at what he felt.  Ignis fever had risen since this afternoon.

“I'm getting you some meds,” he didn’t bother waiting to see if Ignis was going to try arguing that fact, turning to head back over to the cooler where they had stashed the meds earlier.  Noctis had a mug sitting on the side board and was glaring at the kettle as if that would make it heat the water faster.  Prompto was laying down bread down in the frying pan with a look of extreme concentration.  His tongue was even sticking out the side of this mouth for whatever reason.

That kid was weird.  

“We should see if any of the junk we picked up is worth selling,” Noctis said as Gladio pulled out the package of meds and double checked the dosage amounts on the back.  “Weren't they buying centipede feet last time up at the shop?”

“Yeah, but it really depends on what is in demand from the craftsmen in the area,” Gladio said as he popped out two pills from the package.  Noctis impatiently took the barely steaming kettle off the stove and poured the semi hot water over the tea bag.

“I’ll see if I can get ahold if Staci,” Prompto said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.  “She can send us a list of what's on the request board.”

Staci was one of Wiz's stable hands and absolutely infatuated with everything to do with Prompto.  She would bend over backwards for him if he simply asked.  It was sad really.  Poor kid wasn't going to get a chance with the way Prompto was always fawning over Cindy who was way out of his league if she even batted in that stadium.  Gladio was fairly sure Cindy pitched for the other team anyway.  

Noctis handed Gladio the mug of tea, looking worriedly over towards Ignis, “Think you can get Specs in the tent soon?  He should be sleeping.”

“He needs to eat first,” Gladio gave him a lewd smirk.  “But yeah, I'll wear him out in a bit.”

Noctis rolled his eyes at the obvious innuendo and huffed at him but waved a hand over towards their sick companion even as the obvious tension in his shoulders eased minutely.  It was the reaction Gladio was looking for.  Noctis was getting so wound up over Ignis being sick that Gladio was worried he'd develop an ulcer in the next hour.  It wasn't a good thing for a King to worry over the little things.  He'd probably have keeled over with a heart attack if something major were to happened while he wa-  

...oh wait, something major had already happened…

Gladio pushed that thought away as he walked back over to Ignis.  The Fall of  Insomnia was still to fresh in his mind to dwell on.  The last thing anyone needed was for him to open that bag of worms right then.  He’d deal with it later.  He knelt down next to Ignis again, offering him both the mug of tea and the pills.  “Here, Prom just put down some toast.  It'll be ready shortly.”

Silently, Ignis first took the pills and washed them down with the rest of his water before setting it aside and taking his tea.  “Thank you,” he said and in a very despondent and sad voice.  It was almost like Gladio was watching the man crumble before his eyes.  “I'm afraid I'm going to be a bit of a hindrance over the next few days.”

The defeat in his voice while half curled in on himself made Gladio’s heart wilt.  Ignis wasn't the kind of man to let something like this get to him.  He’d have to do something special for his friend later but first he had to reassure him.  “It’s no big deal.  You just need to focus on getting better.”  He settled for patting Ignis’ knee even though he wanted nothing more than to scoop him up in a bear hug and cuddle him for the next hour.  Sick or not, Ignis would probably gut him like a fish for that.  “We’ll handle the rest,” he added with confidence as he stood.

Ignis gave him a small, appreciative smile before turning back to his tea.  

It made Gladio want to hug the life out of him for purely selfish reasons.

Despite helping Noct and Prompto figure out if they could afford the caravan -Staci had come through but they only had one item on the list and bass teeth weren’t fetching a very high price at this time- Gladio kept an eye on Ignis throughout their dinner.  It was obvious that the toast wasn't settling well and that it was all Ignis could do not to throw up again as he struggled to keep it down.  It was painful to have to watch.

Finally, after managing half his toast, Ignis stood and wished them a good night.  Gladio shot a wink over and Noctis as he rose and padded silently towards the tent after Ignis.  A little more tension eased out of Noctis at that.  He was going to have to talk to Prompto and get the kid to help him keep Noctis stress levels down.  The last thing they needed right now was the Prince having a major anxiety attack.  Seriously, Ignis only had the flu.  It wasn’t that bad.  

Ignis was kind of grumpy which wasn’t surprising.  If Gladio had been sick and exhausted he definitely wouldn’t have been the barrel of fun that Ignis currently was.  Still, there was only one way to press on now and that was basically just do things before Ignis could complain.  Between telling Ignis he was looking at his back -which was probably cramped from how he was sitting in that chair- and refusing to take the unspoken ‘no’s and ‘bugger’ off as an answer, Gladio managed to get Ignis into his sweats, half wrapped in one of the blankets and lying down with little added fanfare.  

The sports liniment was something he used on sore or pulled muscles.  The gentle warmth helping ease out the tension and forcing the muscle to relax.  It worked like a charm on Ignis who half melted into the blanket with a small noise of contentment.  Gladio couldn’t help but smear the liniment all over his back, taking care to rub it into his skin and muscles, and paying special attention to the back of his neck and tops of his shoulders where he knew Ignis tended to carry all of his stress.

It left the advisor a pliant, mostly asleep lump on the floor of the tent.  Partially wrapped in the blankets and with his shirt pushed up so that he could reach the majority of his back, Gladio couldn’t help but admire the sight.  It just looked so right.  Ignis, limp and barely responsive to anything but his touch…

Before he could stop himself or really think about what he was doing, Gladio bent over and lightly pressed a kiss to the back of Ignis’ neck.

Ignis moved faintly at the touch, more asleep than awake which was a miracle in itself.  Gladio shook his head to himself as he sat up and fixed his sweatshirt so that it covered Ignis’ back again.  He carefully draped the blanket over Ignis so as not to disturb him.  Gladio was glad Ignis was so out of it.  Had he been caught, Ignis would probably shank him or -even worse as far as he was concerned- he’d lose the closest friend he had ever had.  It wasn’t as if Ignis was into guys anyways.

After he was sure Ignis would be comfortable as possible, Gladio left the tent.  As he stood from zipping the tent door closed, Gladio wiped a hand down his face in annoyance with himself.  He’d thought he’d killed the crush he had on Ignis years ago. 

Looks like he was wrong.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt that after everything that went down in 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' I should shed some light on Gladio's side of the coin (and it helped finish out this chapter's ending beautifully where I was floundering somewhat)
> 
> So yes. Gladio and Ignis both have a thing for each other but have never acted on it because they are worried about loosing the other's friendship and think that the other isn't into men. It will be crop up here and there but it was not my intention to have this be a romance when I started working on the fic so don't be surprised at how toned down it is.


	4. Too Hot to Handle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my word... It's been way too long since I have updated this one. Really got to do something about these huge gaps between posts. Sorry for the delay! Between life, school and work (the big three reasons why everything gets delayed it seems) my life has been a bit of a roller coaster.

As much as he hated to do it, Prompto needed to wake up Ignis. 

Ignis hadn't been sleeping well when they went to bed the night before.  He’d been twitching slightly in his sleep, his pale face pinched into a frown.  When they had entered the tent to sleep themselves, Noctis had stumbled over the edge of the tent when he was crawling inside and landed in a heap nearly on top of him.  It hadn’t mattered at all, Ignis hadn't even reacted or moved from the near miss.  Only the slow and steady rise and fall of the blanket he was wrapped in showed that he was even still alive.

It was eerie.

Gladio had curled up behind him, sliding an arm around him and pulling him close for the night.  Part of Prompto wanted to say something about it but the rest of him ruthlessly gagged that first part and wrestled it down into submission.  Now was not the time to crack a joke at either Ignis’ or Gladio's expense regardless of how perfect the situation was set up for it.  Though Prompto couldn't help the weak smile at the thought of Ignis’ reaction if he woke up to Gladio spooning him if he was well.

Ignis had let out a little moan as Gladio pulled him close but the pinched expression on Ignis’ face did eased slightly.  That was kinda sweet but seeing Ignis so un-Ignis was hard.  Ignis shouldn't be weak or pale or looking like death had warmed over him recently.  He should be his typical posed air with that little half smile and those eyes already picking apart an opposition that they had yet to even come across yet.  

Despite how worried he was about Ignis, he had still needed to sleep as well.  It didn’t take long before Prompto was down for the count.  Curled up closely to his Noctis shaped pillow that did little more than elbow him in the ribs so he would stop squeezing him so hard.

It wasn’t long after they had all woken up and slipped out of the tent that the game plan they had decided on the night before was put into effect.  It started with Noct calling Wiz to find out if they could leave Ignis in the caravan and come back and pay for it when they returned with the bounty.  The owner of the chocobo post would most likely say yes.  They were in really good standings with him and he knew that they would keep their word.  Especially when they were essentially leaving Ignis as collateral.

While Noct made that phone call, Gladio made another to Cape Caem and Dustin.  While he was more into reconnaissance than anything, Dustin did hold a medical degree to help support combatants.  He might be able to give Gladio some ideas or new treatments to try before they reached the doctor's.  Also he could notify Cor of what was happening.  With Ignis down for the next few days, he needed to know that the Prince’s personal retinue was down a member mostly for security reasons.  As the head of the remaining crownsguard, Cor was still primarily responsible for Noctis’ safety now more than ever.

It wouldn’t surprise Prompto in the least if they were ordered to bring Ignis to the Cape to recover and stick around there themselves as a precaution.  It still looked really shabby on the outside but who would think that a run down building and lighthouse had become a stronghold for the remaining Glaives and Crownsgaurd that had managed to survive.  King Regis’ secret dock really just needed to be retrofitted and updated, something that Cid took to doing with glee.  Over the past month, Cid had managed to renovate and update most of the bunker attached to the dock and that had become their base of operations so to speak.  It was kind of surprising that the old guy was still spry enough to rebuild most of the facilities in such a short amount of time almost entirely on his own.  

With the other two on the phone, Prompto was in charge of cooking up some oatmeal for everyone and packing up the majority of the kitchen gear he wasn’t using.  He wasn’t sure why he was suddenly in charge of cooking stuff with Ignis out of commission.  Sure he had done a lot of his own meals back in the City but he was far from an expert at it.  It was way easier to order out and the salads at the corner store had been freaking amazing and relatively cheap.  He was still trying to learn how to make several dishes at once and get the timing for them all down so they were ready at the same time.  Still, between Gladio’s love of sodium loaded cup noodles and Noctis inability to cook anything with less than four directions on the box, he was probably the best out of the four of them to be cooking after Ignis.  

And he so hated it.

With the oatmeal almost ready and the other two still in the midsts of their respective phone calls, it fell to him to wake up Ignis.  Truthfully he was all for Gladio’s idea of just carrying Ignis up the hill to let him sleep as much as possible.   However he had to agree with Noct that Ignis would not be happy if he happened to wake up being carried anywhere.  Someone would probably end up murdered now or quite possibly poisoned later.  Take your pick.

Prompto unzipped and crawled back into the tent.  It was warmer inside than out and Prompto vaguely wondered how Ignis was still sleeping through it especially so bundled up in the blankets and his borrowed sweater.  The tent was positively stifling.  “Iggy?  Hey, Iggy,” He said gently shaking Ignis’ shoulder.  “Come on, it's time to get up.”

Ignis didn’t rouse or even really respond to the shake which made Prompto worry a little more than he had been before.  Carefully and ready to jump back incase Ignis tried to swat at him, he started tapping at Ignis’ cheeks a lot like he did with Noctis when he was being especially difficult to wake up.  That wrung a small moan out of Ignis but other than that he remained asleep.

That wasn’t a good sign.

“Iggy?” he asked but was only met with silence.  Now that he was paying closer attention to him, Prompto realized Ignis was flushed and he was breathing a bit more rapidly than normal for someone asleep.  Something was really wrong but it was beyond him as to what.  It was time to call in reinforcements.

“Hey Gladio,” he called over his shoulder even as he kept his eyes on Ignis.  “Ignis isn’t waking up.”  There was a bit of sweat clinging to his temples so with a bit of intuition, Prompto put his hand to Ignis’ forehead.  Even through his gloved palm he could feel the heat and Ignis sighed blissfully at the cool sensation.  Prompto, on the other hand, jumped right into panic mode.   “...and he's really warm!  Like fira spell warm!”

There was a rapid series of heavy footfalls from outside the tent before Gladio was sweeping the door flap aside.  “Later Dustin,” he said as he entered the tent, hanging up and tucking the phone away in his vest with such speed Prompto doubted that Dustin even had a chance to say good bye.

Gladio barely put a hand to Ignis’ forehead before he was drawing back with a hiss.  “Fuck,” he growled as he started to strip the blankets away from Ignis’ body.  “Prom, get the door flap open so we can cool this place down.”  

“Gottcha,” he turned away from Gladio who was balling the first blanket off to the side of the tent.  He lifted the flap and nearly jumped out of his skin as Noctis tried coming through the fabric door at the same time.  There was a bit of fumbling as both of them tried to reel backwards but not tip over before they calmed down from their scare enough to realize what had happened.

“What’s wrong?” Noct asked as he watched Gladio toss the second blanket off to the side and Prompto when back to velcroing the door open.  “Is Specs alright?”

“His fever’s spiked,” Gladio grumbled as he began wrestling the sweatshirt off Ignis.  Both watched as Gladio half manhandled the sweatshirt off the unresponsive body with a morbid fascination.  “We gotta cool him down.”

Gladio began barking out orders as he rolled a now half naked Ignis onto his back and repositioned his limbs so he was more comfortable.  “Prompto, get out the emergency kit and grab me a couple of those chemical ice packs we have in there.  Noct, take the gravity filter down to the lake a refill the reservoir.  We need to get Ignis rehydrated.”  

“On it,” Prompto said as he pulled the large bulky duffel bag that acted as their emergency medical supplies out of the arsenal.  Noctis didn’t bother saying anything.  He ran for the edge of the haven, passing the folding table and snatch up the empty filter’s bladder as he went.  Noctis summoned his blade from the arsenal and threw it off the edge of the haven, warping to it a second later and repeating the motion almost immediately.  Warping his way down to the small lake nearby was faster than running all that way even if it tired him out more.

“Here,” back in the tent, Prompto fished out the two chemical ice packs and tossed one to Gladio.  Gladio caught it one handed and they both silently worked off the hard plastic case.  Prompto held a corner of the package and snapped the small white bag hard with a quick flick of the wrist.  He squished it then in both hands, shaking it slightly to help disperse the chemicals inside.  The package immediately started to cool in his hands as the chemicals being mixed inside reacted to each other.

Gladio had done the same with his bag and was cradling it to the side of Ignis’ face, partially resting it over his temple.  Prompto moved to mirror the position with his ice pack on the other side.  “How is he?” he asked, his eyes drawn to Gladio’s other hand that was lightly pressing two fingers to the side of his neck.  

“Hot,” Gladio said absentmindedly as his hand moved from his neck to gently press open his eye lid.  Ignis’ eyes were completely rolled back in his head.  “And unconscious,” he frowned as he moved his hand back down to rest on Ignis’ diaphragm.  “Breath is shallow and his pulse is thready.”

“So… Not good?”

“Definitely not good,” he brought his hand back up and smoothed Ignis’ bangs back away from his forehead.  Ignis looked so much younger laying there, sans glasses and with his hair unstyled.  “This can’t be a regular fever,” he thought out loud.

“Huh?” Prompto looked up from watching Ignis pae face for signs of life.  “What do you mean?”

Gladio seemed startled by his voice and blinked at him in confusion.  He hadn’t meant to say that out loud.  “It’s onset is too fast,” he looked back at Ignis as he spoke.  No sense in leaving the kid in the dark any longer.  “A simple fever wouldn’t have spiked his temperature this high this fast.  Even if it was caused by a flu.  The medicine he took last night doesn’t even seem to be tempering its effects.”

“But he took those pills last night,” Prompto pointed out in confusion.

“Two pills are enough for an adult twelve hour does,” Gladio checked and frowned when he realized that Ignis was still unconscious.  The cold pack on his cheeks and temples weren’t affecting his fever.  The pack was definitely chilling his hand so he knew it was working.  “And these should be causing him to react somehow.”

“So this is really bad?” Prompto looked down at Ignis and back up at Gladio who was frowning down at the limp form between them.  

“Yeah,” Gladio said slowly as he mentally went over a list of what it could be.  “It’s definitely some kind of infection… but I’m not sure what’s causing it.”

“What’s causing what?” Noct was breathing heavily, feeling the fatigue from half warping, half running his way down to the pond and back.  He had come back just in time to catch the tail end of Gladio's comment.

“Whatever is wrong with Ignis is more than just an average flu,” Gladio reiterated.  “It's an infection of some kind but I'm not sure the cause.”

“Is it a wound or something from a fighting?” Noct asked as he finished setting up the gravity powered water filter and open the valve to begin the process.  “Maybe a potion sealed something inside him?”

“Doubtful,” Gladio said as he checked over Ignis again, starting to get even more visibly frustrated that there was no change in his condition.  “He would have had even more symptoms than he does now.”

“Would it be something hereditary?”  Prompto asked hesitantly.  “My father has this viral thing that kicks up occasionally and makes it hard for him to breath.”

“Ignis has alway been ridiculously healthy,” Noct said shuffling for one foot to the other just outside the tent.  “Something hereditary would have popped up back in Insomnia.”

Gladio let out a growl and took the ice pack away from the side of Ignis’ head.  “Dammit, this isn’t working,” he shifted around in the tight space so that he could get his arms around Ignis’ shoulders and under his knees.

“Hey, where are you taking him?” Prompto asked leaning back as Gladio lifted Ignis with ease and held him close to his chest.  

“Shouldn’t he stay here?” Noct asked, frowning and crossing his arms.

“Down to the pond,” Gladio grunted out as he shifted his legs underneath him so he could get out of the tent.  “The cold packs aren’t dropping his fever.  We need to cool him down fast.”

“Wouldn’t ice work better?” Noctis asked, remembering one time when he had a mild fever that Ignis had put ice in a teatowel that he had then rested on his forehead.  It had felt absolutely amazing then.

“If it were colder than the ice packs yeah,” Gladio agreed as Prompto moved out of the way so he could leave the tent with Ignis.  “But we don’t have an-” he was cut off as Noctis held out one of their magic flasks, filled with white mist and a slight frost clinging to the outside.  Part of Gladio wanted to argue the blatant waste of their weapon stores but the limp form in his arms just made him smile up at Noctis.  “That’ll work to.”

“We just won’t tell Ignis that we were misusing the elementancy even if it was to help him,” Prompto added as he shifted back up onto his knees.  Gladio was moving to lay Ignis back down.  “Err… we're not going to use it on him right?”

“No, the shock to his system would be too much for him,” Gladio continued to rearrange Ignis on the floor of the tent so he was in a more comfortable position.  “Noct, go use it on the far side of the heaven.  Don’t want Ignis to catch too much of the chill right off.”

“On it,” the Crowned Prince turned and walked away from the tent, Prompto scrambling out to follow him.  

Noctis didn't hesitate for an instance, chucking the small glass jar out into the field where it smashed open.  The air froze almost instantly, the sudden temperature drop freezing the latent water in the atmosphere causing a heavy frost to spread out from the point of orign.  The magic spell that had been released on a nearby unsuspecting rock which had become covered in a heavy layer of ice.  The frozen water refracting the light from the morning sun into a faint rainbow that arched across the frosty grass.  

Prompto had seen such a sight several times before now and he alway paused for a brief moment after the battle was complete to marvel at the small light show.  This time he had more important matters to think about as he hopped off the haven and walked across the frosted ground to reach the rock before the spell had even finished freezing everything.  The thin ice crunched under foot as he walked over it but the chill in the air was barely even noticeable to him.  He called his gun from the arsenal and slammed the butt of it against the iced covered stone causing several large shards to crack off and fall to the ground. 

Noctis scooped up several of the larger pieces, having followed after Prompto practically on his heels.  He left with two of the larger pieces, Prompto pausing long enough to pick up the remaining shards.  Noctis headed straight for the tent, handing them over to a waiting Gladio.  Gladio barely took a moment to make sure he had a good grip on the two ice shards before pressing them Ignis’ brow and on the back of his neck.  

Ignis let out a heart wrenching weak cry that made all three of them flinch.

“Easy Iggy.  It’s alright.  It’s okay,” Gladio said softly as Prompto stepped up next to a stricken looking Noctis who was watching Ignis with an absolutely heartbroken look on his face.  “I know it’s cold but we need to drop your fever.”

Ignis’ eyes were open but it was doubtful if Ignis was really aware of his situation.  His arms flinched as if he was trying to move them and a small whimper escaped him.  Prompto set the extra ice down outside the door.  If he thought earlier had been upsetting than this was by far worse.  

“Go back to sleep Iggy,” Gladio may have appeared to be fine but even his stomach was twisting itself into an uncomfortable knot about this scene.  “We gotch.  You’ll be alright.”  Gladio silently swore he was going to make sure of it.  He was relieved as Ignis’ eyes fluttered closed again.

“Gladio…” Noctis heaved a breath and it came out shuddering.  “We’re taking Ignis with us on the hunt.  He’ll stay in the Regalia  Then we’re going straight to the doctor’s from there.”  He ignored the light touch to his arm as Prompto laid a tentative hand there.  

“Gotcha,” Gladio looked away from Ignis and up to his charge.  “This could take awhile,” he needed to give Noctis something to do.  The kid was obviously trying to hide how upsetting this scene was for him and failing miserably at it.  “How about you two finish breaking down the camp so we can leave as soon as he is awake?”

“I need to take a walk,” Noctis said, eyes still locked on the limp figure of his advisor and closest friend.  

“We’ll pick and then go down to the lake.  Take the long way around,” Prompto added quickly.  Gladio nodded in understanding as he turned back to Ignis and Noctis stomped over to the kitchenette, stowing things away with more force than strictly necessary.  

Prompto came up next to him and began to help without saying anything.  After a few moments of working together in a tense silence, Prompto had to ask in a soft whisper, “Noct?  Are you okay?”

“I will be when we get him to the doctor,” he answered tensely.  If he could he would be bending time right now to that afternoon, when they were walking into the clinic.  Hopefully picking up and then walking down around the lake would make time fly by.  Hopefully Ignis would be awake when they got back so they could get moving.  He was half tempted to have Gladio carry Ignis up the hill if he wasn’t awake when they got back so they could just hurry up and get him to the doctor.

Noctis almost wished that he and Prompto ran into some Magitek on their walk.  Or maybe some voretooths.  At least then he could take out his frustration on something.  


End file.
